Watch: KISS Plays Three-Song Set At 2023 Australian Football League Grand Final

KISS performed during the Telstra pre-game entertainment at the 2023 Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final earlier today (Saturday, September 30) in Melbourne, Australia.

The legendary rockers were a late inclusion to the AFL's biggest day being announced after CROWDED HOUSE pulled out just under two months out from the event.

With the temperature just shy of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), KISS took to the stage before the game kicked off between Collingwood Magpies and the Brisbane Lions at 2:30 p.m. at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and played a three-song set at Melbourne Cricket Ground to a crowd of around 100,000.

Guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley, bassist Gene Simmons, lead guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer opened the set with "I Was Made For Lovin' You" and then went straight into "Shout it Out Loud". As they do at every single KISS show, they finished the performance with their classic rock and roll anthem "Rock And Roll All Nite", which was accompanied by pyrotechnics and hundreds of dancers donning KISS's iconic face paint.

At the end of the set, Stanley started whirling his guitar in the build-up to smashing it on stage, but broadcasters Seven inexplicably switched camera angles to a drone above the ground for an aerial shot of the stadium, which meant that the TV viewers were robbed of the show's climax.

While many fans were ecstatic about KISS's performance, others were less than impressed as they accused the aging rockers of "lip syncing" and "miming" their songs.

One user took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to write, "KISS lip synching is fucking sending me."

"Do you think any of them could maybe pretend to play a bit harder?" another questioned.

"Again the AFL prove they can't get the entertainment for the GF right. This feels like a tribute band," a third added.

"Wow AFL this is disgraceful!" someone else wrote. "Terrible band! Terrible miming! Terrible fake crowd noice! Disaster of an opening act."

Others slammed Seven for missing out on Stanley's guitar smash, with one user sarcastically writing: "Well done to @7AFL for missing the guitar smash, your coverage never fails to disappoint."

There was also plenty of praise for KISS's performance, with one user writing, "I'm sorry to those before. KISS has just demolished all recent Grand Final pre-game entertainment off the stage."

"The KISS opening was fucking ELITE!" another said.

"Now that is entertainment," a third wrote.

KISS is currently touring as part of their global "End Of The Road" tour and has one final Australian show in Sydney — "The Final Curtain" — exclusively at Sydney's Accor Stadium on Saturday, October 7.

"The Final Curtain" show was initiated via a national petition, with passionate KISS fans pleading for the band to return to play one more show in Australia before they bring their incredible touring career to an end with their final-ever performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 2, 2023.